February Vacation Activities & Early Spring Clubs

Announcing February Vacation activities and Spring clubs at the Makers’ Corner!
The Makers’ Corner after school program serves students in grades 6-8, and is located in the Underwood School. To see activity and club descriptions, register for those and for the regular Makers’ Corner program, visit www.underwoodafterschool.org/makerscorner.

February Vacation week
February 19th – 21st, 8:15 am – 5:30 pm each day (sign up by the day)
February 19th: Woodworking Day – Make Your Own Candy Dispenser
February 20th: Intro to Glassblowing at the Diablo Glass School
February 21st: Studio Tour & Making a Mock Newscast at NewTV

Spring Clubs
Sewing Stuffed Animals Club, Tuesdays, 2:00-4:15 pm, March 5th – April 9th
Scene Shop Props, Costumes, & Sets Club, Thursdays, 2:45 – 4:15 pm , March 7th – May 9th
Build Your Own Infinity Light Table Club, Fridays, 2:45 – 4:15 pm, March 1st – Apr 5th

Players needed – Beginners welcome – This is a great program!

Register now for Newton Girls Softball (NGS), a recreational league for Newton girls in grades K-7. For tons of information and registration, visit www.newtongirlssoftball.org.

NGS welcomes players of all skill levels and will provide your daughter with an experience that fosters positive self-esteem, team spirit, and individual growth through personal achievement and as a team member. Hear all about it directly from the kids in this Video  then register your daughter(s). You’ll be glad you did!

Goals of Newton Girls Softball

  • To Teach the fundamentals of the game.
  • To Encourage development and good sportsmanship of all players through participation in a team environment.
  • To Have Fun, make new friends, and grow as a member of a team.
  • To Win enough games to feel good about the team and the season. The league makes every effort to create balanced teams,allowing for the highest level of fair competition within each grade and ensuring that players feel good about their team and the season.

2019 Registration Dates:

  • January 31st: Deadline to register without paying a late fee. 
  • February 28th: Deadline to register with guaranteed placement and pair-me-with rights. A $15 late fee will be applied.
  • February 28th: Last day to withdraw and receive a full refund. Sorry, no refunds after this date.
  • March 1st – April 15th: Still accepting registrations. Player is placed on the wait list, no pair-me-with rights, and a $15 late fee. Openings filled on a first come, first served basis.

Winter Basketball Program

Chaim Andler of Boston Athletic Training is running 2 hour basketball clinics on weekend mornings that are designed to help all young basketball players improve their skills and conditioning while also having fun! The program was set up as an 8 week program, but Chaim is offering a “drop-in” option, which means you can simply join for a day whenever you’d like.

Clinic sessions will include individual based skills work such as shooting, dribbling, passing, driving to the hoop and defense. The sessions will also have group based drills, 2v2 and 3v3 game situation drills, which help young athletes improve their basketball IQ.

For the next 2 weekends, he is offering a special for new athletes to try out his program for half the cost! This means it will be $30.00 for your first session. Contact Chaim at 857-313-8442 or chaim@bostonathletictraining.com by Thursday evening each week to opt-in for the Saturday and/ or Sunday session that weekend.

Saturdays and Sundays, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm
The Hyde Community Center, Newton
$60.00* for the day (option to pay for 7 dates at $350 or 14 dates for $600)

*New athlete special = $30 for the first drop-in session

Maine Arts Camp!

Maine Arts Camp! Find out what makes it so special at the Teen Summer Program Expo.

If you are looking for a great overnight summer experience for your creative 9-16 year-old, come and check out Maine Arts Camp at the Teen Summer Program Expo on Monday, January 28th.

Located on the campus of Colby College, MAC is a small, friendly camp community that is big on empathy and personal growth – and embracing creative opportunity! With an extensive program of activities covering visual arts, theatre, music, dance, culinary arts, robotics and rocketry, film-making, individual sports and more, and with access to Colby’s state-of-the-art facilities, Maine Arts Camp offers exceptionally high quality instruction across a wide range of interests.

Visit www.maineartscamp.com to find out more.

Summer Program Expo
January 28th, 5:30-8:00 pm
Newton South High School, 140 Brandeis Road

SAT/ACT Tutor

Chris Orr has worked with students of a wide age range, specializing in preparing high school students for the SAT and ACT. Most of his SAT prep students enjoy a score improvement of over 150 points, which far exceeds the results of any national or regional tutoring company. His approach relies on a 3 pronged focus on Strategy, Content, and Practice with the material to maximize his students’ results.

Families hire Chris to help students with English, writing, Algebra, Geometry, History, SATs, ACTs, SSAT, ISEE and the SAT Subject tests. He works with students in their homes or a library so he can provide the most tailored and personalized service. You may find more information about his services at www.orracademicadvising.com or contact him at 781-304-8805.

Parent of a Junior?

Are you stressed out after the recent College Night? Feeling overwhelmed about the entire college application process? If you answered yes, Dr. Maruta Vitols can help. She’s an independent comprehensive college consultant and founder of A+ College Consulting (Newton South grad, class of 1994).

Contact Maruta at mvitols@gmail.com for a free 45 minute consultation to learn how she make the process of finding the right fit colleges for your student as fun and stress-free as possible. Discover more at www.apluscollegeconsult.com.

Varsity female athletes

A parent of former NPS students, who is passionate about a Harvard Medical School study examining whether there might be a unique EKG biomarker for anorexia nervosa, is looking for healthy female athletes age 14-18 in any varsity sport who could take part as normal controls in an EKG study.

The study is noninvasive, and the student gets $25.00 gift certificate to Amazon and a tour of the physiology laboratory at Spaulding Rehab in Cambridge. Please contact Barbara Scolnick at 617-803-6353 or scolnick@bu.edu or Cristen at 617- 758-5502 or cmuresan1@partners.org for more information and to sign up.

Big Night 2019 – Auction Items Needed

We are excited about Big Night, Bigelow-On-The-Charles, on March 30, 2019, 7:30-10:30 pm, at the Cambridge Boat Club! 

Planning is well underway and we are actively seeking donations for our silent auction. Your support and help is so critical to making this event successful and being able to reach our goal of 60 donated items.

Gift cards for restaurants, spa services, sporting event tickets, weekends at a vacation home, etc. are all great ideas for our auction. And whether it is your family that is donating or a business, we cannot thank you enough for your generosity.

Donated items are due by March 10, 2019, and we appreciate receiving auction items as soon as possible!

Below you will find a link for a printable business solicitation letter and donation form. Please contact committee chairperson, Karen Markson, at kmarkson@gmail.com or bigelowbulldog@gmail.com if you have any questions. Thank you so much for your support of the Bigelow community’s biggest fundraiser of the year!

Download business solicitation letter here.

Teacher Appreciation Luncheon – Call for volunteers and food contributions

The Bigelow Teacher Appreciation Luncheon will be Wednesday, February 6th, at the Library.

It is a great way to take a moment to thank the amazing teachers and staff at Bigelow for all they do for our children. Bigelow families provide the food, beverages, and financial support for this event. Please, consider making a contribution to the luncheon, or help with set up and clean up. We still need some volunteers and donations for this appreciation event.

To donate or volunteer please sign up HERE.

To make a monetary contribution for the luncheon, please click HERE.

  • Please send in your favorite lunch food! Salads, sandwiches, entrees – whatever you think our wonderful teachers and staff will enjoy.
  • It is most helpful if items are brought in recyclable containers.
  • All items may be dropped off on the morning of the luncheon in the teacher’s lunchroom (in the library) or put in the refrigerator there.
  • Please drop off all items no later than 10:30 AM.

For more information or if you have any questions, please contact the Teacher Appreciation Chairs, Miriam Alandydy (Miriam.alandydy@gmail.com) or Andrea Hemment (ahemment@gmail.com).

Thank you again for helping us show our appreciation for our teachers and staff.

Show Your Love for the Bigelow Library!

Honor a teacher or student with a donation to the Bigelow Library. By clicking on the Bigelow Library Donation Website, you can purchase a book from the requested list of books to help maintain Bigelow Library’s rich collection of independent reading books. Each book purchased will include a bookplate on the inside cover of the book with both your name and the person you would like to honor. The books are covered and bound in a special way to last for a long time and come shelf ready so that each book can be in the hands of a reader as soon as possible.  

Love the Bigelow Library by making a donation today!  

Thank you for your consideration and generosity.
Patty Summa, Bigelow Library Teacher